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Joy of Shamrock Quay - Day 5 begins ARC+



Graham,

Life on a heavy cruiser.

The last 24 hours have been wonderful, we are loving our Atlantic experience. Just before I began to write, we had a school of flying fish wizz past, some landing on our decks. They were followed by a huge pod of dolphins who stopped their breakfast hunt to perform a display along side our cockpit and under our bows.

Sailing has been good, Susie our weather girl has done a good job at finding us some nice breeze to keep our sails full enough to power our 37 tons through the water. Skip has been bold with our sail plan and has kept up 200m sheet even through the night. He seems to be pleased with the VMG most of the time, however he did get frustrated with our boat speed and ordered a third head sail to be raised (yes we have photos)

Skip also did a provisioning stock check last night and as a result has ordered the following.

1. Too much beer has been drunk therefore reduce rationing to 3 cans per man per day.
2. One large glass of rum to be drunk at the end of night watch in order to help sleeping.
3. Water tanks are too low therefore baths are now banned. Only one shower per day allowed.

Skip is not such a bad man though. Yesterday we beat the average VMG that he had set us, so he rewarded us with 15 mins of auto helm. The crew quickly changed into evening wear and mustered on the poop deck for champagne and canapés.

He must have been in a really good mood as he lit the BBQ and proceeded to cook a whole rib of beef. I did tell him that the embers from the fire were more likely to cause damage to his new sails than me flogging them in the swells, but he didn't listen.

After no sight of another vessel for 24 hours, we were commenting that with only 220 miles to go we should soon start seeing other boats. At that point we spotted the catermeran Amaris (our new ARC+ best friend) on our port side. We have had just made VHF contact with them and now have a small bet on who will cross the line first.

I hope the readers our enjoying our ditty and thanks to all our friends and supporters at home.


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